VH1 announced this week that the network is bringing back The Surreal Life for a seventh season, over 15 years after the reality series last aired. The popular mid-aughts reality series was initially intended to be a take on MTV’s The Real World — only instead of throwing a bunch of young, unknown strangers into a house together, the series instead assembled a group of six to eight mismatched celebrities with the (often correct) hopes that drama would ensue.
This time, VH1 has recruited former NBA player Dennis Rodman, Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz, adult film star Stormy Daniels, actress and comedian Kim Coles, makeup artist Manny MUA, Grammy-nominated singer Tamar Braxton, R&B singer August Alsina, and actress and former WWE superstar CJ Perry. And it looks like the network may have once again found a recipe for success.
Going by the trailer, which was also released this week, it appears as though the perpetually naked Rodman is going to be a breakout star this season. At one point in the clip, he suggests that he and Coles sleep in the same bed, which prompts about the reaction you’d expect. Later, near the end of the clip, Muniz wearily announces in a confessional: “We’ve all seen Dennis Rodman’s dong.”
Meanwhile, Daniels (who is apparently accompanied by her haunted doll Susan) should also bring in viewers hoping for any tidbits she might reveal about her brief time spent with former President Donald Trump and his “toadstool” wiener, which is also teased in the trailer. “People just know me as the girl who [bleeped] Trump,” she says at one point. Well, yeah.
The Surreal Life originally ran for two seasons on The WB from 2003 to 2004, before moving to VH1 for its third season, which effectively launched the network’s “Celebreality” line of programming when actress Brigitte Nielsen and Public Enemy hype man Flavor Flav began a perplexing yet intriguing romance on the show. From there, VH1 gave the pair their own series, Strange Love.
But after Nielsen and Flav split for good, the Bachelor-style series Flavor of Love was born, which went on to launch over a dozen more spinoffs including I Love New York, Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, I Love Money, and so on. A similar franchise was centered around Poison frontman Bret Michaels, starting out with 2007’s Rock of Love.
The Surreal Life will premiere on VH1 with back-to-back episodes on Oct. 24. In the meantime, fans can catch all of the previous seasons on Paramount Plus.
